It's Time To Reimagine...Herman Melville's MOBY DICK!?!?

Merrick here...
Timur Bekmambetov (WANTED, NIGHT WATCH, DAY WATCH) is gearing up to make a MOBY DICK movie that isn't really a MOBY DICK movie, even though it sort of is.
Bekmambetov will direct from a screenplay by Bill Collage and Adam Cooper.

The writers revere Melville’s original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure. Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain.
This change will allow them to depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.
"Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick,’ " Cooper said. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."

...says THIS ARTICLE in Variety.
With so many young sailors in the film, there must certainly be a way to work Shia into this, no? Bet there is...

but now that I'm not racing like a dork to be first, let's talk about this. Moby Dick is about one thing and one thing only: one man and his obsession with revenge at all costs. Ahab is not likeable, he is a madman obsessed. We don't care about the background on other ships that he's run into. The narration of Ishmael in first person is iconic. The Patrick Stewart remake, not reimagining, but remake was balls to the wall great. The only thing that made it better was Gregory Peck in what I believe was his last performance as the local parson. I don't recall if he was nominated, or received an emmy for it, but he should have. Buffalo Bill as Starbuck was nice. Queequeg was a good and gentle friend, and a bad mo fo at the same time. If you want to reimagine, do something like putting this in outer space or some crap. To re-write the traits of the main characters is blasphemy.

Grammaton beat me to it. They obviously don't understand Moby Dick with the changes outlined here. Remake it however you want, but at a certain point it stops being Moby Dick. Hey, I'm going to reimagine Star Wars, but instead of Darth Vader being evil, I'm going to make him a nice, even-tempered florist with asthma.

imagine my relief.<p>
someone should make an adaptation of Moby Dick which focuses on all those boring chapters that everyone skips over, the ones about knots and whale blubber. think of it as the Cloverfield approach, told from the perspective of one of anonymous crew of the Pequod...<p>

The whale has a son<p>
A CGI Gregory Peck appears<p>
The whale can transform itself into a gun and shoots the ship<p>
Moby 3D Dick!<p>
Ahab is Female<p>
The film is made up of handheld "found" footage but the tape is recording over the heros homemade porn tape and we keep getting glimpses of him in action inbetween the whale action<P>Timur those ideas are all yours, a gift from me to you.

And what the fuck is wrong with that? Does everything have to be reinvented for the purpose of distancing the current generation from their elders? Your grandfather's Moby Dick IS Melville's Moby Dick! I'm so fucking sick of the mentality that says that anything more than a decade old is quaint or primitive or "emo" or whatever. Here's to marginalizing anyone and anything over 30. I'm sure this movie will be super fucking hip.

Excellent suggestions. Maybe they could also have Ahab struggling with his evil side, resisting the urge to join with the whale on its unstoppable killing spree. Or maybe the whale just attacks ships crewed by hot girls, and Ahab and his crew are all vengeful boyfriends. There could be all kinds of flashbacks to happier times, like the kegger parties in Cancun during spring break. Maybe one of the guys has guilt issues about a moonlit night on the beach with his homie's girl. Of course, no one in the movie should be over 25 or so, except the old seafarer (who would be about 35) whose wise advice all turns out to be fucked up bullshit, cuz, like, he's so old.

Bad, bad idea.<P>"...depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod..."<P>WHAT?! So, this portion will be fabricated from the ether then?<P>"This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects..."<P>Sounds more like an excuse to make a movie with nothing more in mind than the special effects.<P>If you really want to do a movie based upon but not wholly centered on MOBY DICK, why not try adapting IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (the true story that served as Melville's inspiration) instead? Give us something worthwhile; not some graphic novel-style shorthand.

Will Smith for Ahab and Shia for Ishmael. Ishmael will also be gay, but completely accepted by the diverse crew. Quequay will now be a woman who knows martial arts. The Peaquod will have secret weapons and armor and in a pinch can submerge...
Melville & rolling over in his grave.
GFY

there literally is no other point to Moby Dick than Ahab's obsession. That's the whole novel! I mean, I'm not even a huge fan of the material, but there's just no reason at all to do this. It would be like re-imagining "Crime and Punishment" as an action-adventure with a heroic Russian character who happens to be named Raskolnikov being unfairly persecuted by a depraved detective who happens to be named Petrovich. Actually, come to think of it, that sounds like a slightly BETTER idea. Maybe the whole point is lost, but at least there won't be a giant CG white whale splashing around shouting "Dont worry! It's not your grandfather's Moby Dick! I'm NOT a symbol!"

Shia LaBeouf as Ishmael("Captain Ahab, no no no no no no..."), Will Smith as Queequeg ("Awwwww, hell naw, whale!!!"), Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck (sorry about that one...), Megan Fox as Little Pip, Bruce Willis as Captain Ahab and CGI as Moby Dick. <p>
White with flames on it. To amp it up.

Moby Dick is NOT an action/adventure revenge story. Jesus. Ahab a charismatic leader? He's a metaphor. I understand the idea of making a text mainstream, ie giving XMEN black costumes instead of colorful spandex. Fine. But Moby Dick is dark, brooding, a reflection on human nature. It could work as a film if it kept that spirit. As an excuse for a cgi extravaganza, what's the point? We already have Jaws, or the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean. Aaarggg. Stupid.

Is this a joke? A charimatic Ahab? WTF!?!?!?! What next? A reimagining of Romeo and Juliet where their families come together in the spirit of love and friendship to throw a them a huge wedding and they all live happily after?
Accch. May anyone involved in this choke to death on their own vomit after being forced to watch their own children choke to death on their own vomit.

"This ain't your grandfather's MOBY DICK!"
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No shit.
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JAWS remake has to be next, this time with a full reveal of the shark in the first scene. Because, you know, why bother with tension and setup when visual effects have advanced so much?

I'm usually all for remakes, reimaginings, and graphic novel adaptations. But not here. Moby Dick is a fucking classic, not a comic book. I'm on board with the idea or remaking it, but we have two problems here:
1. The director, though talented, is not right for this. We need a bit more 'serous' director. I have to stress, I like the idea of surreal visuals and action, but that is not really the point of Moby Dick.
2. You cannot change the plot or the characters at all. Period.
The whole point of the book is that Ahab is not well, that he is a sick, obsessed man. Don't make him Leonidas. For the love of god, someone step in and kill this project.

He never said word one about your slow motion CGI and pseudo-hip nihilistic dialogue and you gotta take a swipe at him unprovoked. How the fuck do you get off dragging a great man into this ridiculous whale attack bullshit. god damn you you will pay for this you bluetooth wearing hollywood pricks<p>
Sorry guys, don't mean to get worked up but this piece of shit is mouthing off about my grandpappy in a major Hollywood trade publication. I never seen anybody sink so low.

... version of Herman Melville's classic? Where is Melville buried anyway? Get ready for earthquakes caused my the massive vibrations of his corpse spinning at 200,000 RPM in his coffin. This reminds me of that Demi Moore version of The Scarlett Letter where they basically threw out everything but the fact that Demi did, in fact, wear a dress with the letter "A" sewn on it at one point in the movie. Oh yeah... and they added in that massive Indian attack on Boston that we all know so well from the novel and history books...(chortle). Burn, Hollywood, BURN! PS: What cameo role is techno singer Moby (who actually is Herman Melville's great-great granson) going to play? (more chortles)

...shit man! "May anyone involved in this choke to death on their own vomit after being forced to watch their own children choke to death on their own vomit." You've just given me my latest insult! Can't wait to use it. Too fuckin' funny!

It's actually a cop drama set in modern day Los Angeles with Robert Duvall playing Captain Ahab, a grizzled LAPD veteran chasing after Dwayne "Moby" Dick, the wily head of a drug smuggling ring played by Vin Diesel whose trademark is a snow white tuxedo. It's gonna be fantastic.

Decimate means to destroy one tenth of something. Just one decimal point disappears.
If you decimate a ship that is 100% structurally sound it will then still be 90% sound.
So this description says that Moby Dick will only slightly damage all other ships before the Pequod
Sorry that just bothers me.

...and out of newfound compassion and understanding, Ahab will pull it out. The now happy whale and vengeful captain become the best of friends as they swim off, together, into the sunset.<P>Reimagining bastards.

realising that it's impossible to better a classicly written piece, these fuckwits think they've got a handle on it. The fact that they speak of modern day advances in CGI shows exactly where their priorities lie. GENTLEMEN, no one is impressed with CGI anymore. We all love a good movie, with or without good CGI..!

Why would anyone want to tell this story from the whale's perspective? Especially if the whale is villainized and Ahab is a hero. Why should we follow the terror of the whale for hours on end until Ahab shows up and kills the whale—not because the whale took his leg, but because it's the right thing to do. And for the record, I like all those chapters about the knot-tying and whale blubber, and hundreds of words on the meaning of the color white. The book is pretty much the great American novel. This doesn't mean that it can't be re-interpreted. It's kind of like "The Wizard of Oz"; the story is so entrenched in the American consciousness that you can play with it. But this angle/reinterpretation sounds just lame.

My grandfather was an Irish whiskey drinking, WW2 veteran machinist who could kick your ass! I prefer anything of his to your "cool" Moby Dick story. Creating a new version of something because you have something new to say is one thing, but this is kinda dumb. The whalers followed Ahab for two reasons: money and fear. Yeah, none of that Ishmael crap, giving us insight into the events of the story...

against Moby Dick, but is obsessed with cosmetics. She is going after him for one reason and one reason only: ambergriss. What is it? Whale barf. Expensive whale barf used in perfumes. No lie. White whale barf in this case would be even more valuable we assume.

There's such a thing as interpretation--like putting Romeo and Juliet into modern-day NY like West Side Story. Then there's something called an egregious error in judgment--like trying to make a movie adaptation of Street Fighter and hoping it turns out well. This version of Moby Dick errs the side of being egregiously erroneous. Captain Ahab is about fucking obsession and revenge, who'll do anything and everything to kill the white whale. Ahab is NOT charismatic. I swear, every time I hear some of these half-baked movie ideas, it feels like the concept came out of a drunken brainstorm in the middle of a bar.

and then say that "at its core [it] is an action-adventure revenge story"? Go remake 'Orca: the Killer Whale' instead if that's what you think and leave Moby Dick for somebody who actually knows how to read.

...but that "watch some godawful estrogen-fest on Hallmark with the girl" ploy never works. Women secretly HATE the "sensitive male." They'll ALWAYS ditch you casually for some jock asshole, then, if you're REALLY unlucky, you'll end up trapped in the "Just-A-Friend Zone". Fuck it... grab the remote and flip over to the Die Hard marathon... bitches are a dime a dozen, anyway.

Major Hollywood Producer: "Love the concept, but something about this project struck me as not quite right... and then I read this talkback and realized... of course! Why not have the whole thing set in SPACE?!" And then all was right with the universe.

Charismatic leader instead of brooding obsessive? So they're not making Moby Dick, huh? Why call it Moby Dick? This project sounds ridiculous. Like something out of The Player. Or an April Fool's joke.
Check out RICKY SHORE SINGS THE BLUES instead

I'd like to do some research and see how often when some filmmaker says "...at it's core it's a story about [blank]", they actually correctly interpret what [blank] is. I still recall "at it's core it's a story about a kid and his first car," or whatever it was...

...but lap the milk off Timur's Zaafacvajcakjlaksjda's balls. Fuck that. FUCK THIS. FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!! I swear to fucking God I would accept Brett Ratner directing this shit over this cunt. At least Ratner's got The Family Man.

MOBY DICK: DICKPROOF!<p>
John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Micheal Madsen, and Robert Rodriquez are joined by a cast of has-beens to, "absolutely, positively kill every motherfuckin' whale in the ocean!"

That's because it did come out of a drunken brainstorm in the middle of a bar. They had coke too. Lots of coke. And it's "thought showers" now. Screw it! We have to put up with "thought showers" EVERYONE has to put up with "thought showers". "thought showers"... Bullet time Moby Dick... Bush still around... The shit goes ever on.

I looked them up on IMDb, it turns out these writers did "Accepted" and "New York Minute" with the Olsen Twins. So it's not like some nobody hacks, clearly this is in good hands. If there's anybody I trust to second guess my grandfather's literature it's the guys who did an Olsen Twins movie.<p>
But what in fuck's name is a "graphic novel sensibility"?

This obviously needs a modern ecological tone to it. So Seagal has to be a lone drifter like The Lorax only with a special opps background who is standing up for the whale's rights and fights Ahab (Tom Berenger).

"At its core an action-adventure story"?! Good Lord. What did they do, skim the abridged version and doodle explosions in the pictures? Authors need to get the rights to their books on lockdown. Hollywood is full of shameless, dangerously stupid people.

Ahab represents the evil whaling industry, and by extension, all corporations bent on destroying the earth. Moby Dick is a manifestation of Gaia, representing the earth finally rising up to destroy the evil race of mankind. In the end, as the ship sinks, all sea creatures rise up in celebration and sing.

is the kind of movie that would appeal to Massawyrm, i.e., dudes with long hair and black trenchcoats and backwards baseball caps who think time on Xbox Live makes them authorities on the properties of real weapons

It's time to stop falling for the hype, and start not spending your money watching their garbage. They spent years shoving Ben Affleck down our throats, untill everyone woke up and stopped buying the hype & realized how bad he sucked.That's the only way they will learn, and give us a better product. Next year they will be giving us their reimagined, "better" Star Trek. They think that is money in the bank for them. Let's make sure that one tanks & is next year's Speed Racer.

Oh wait, thats right, 300 was a graphic novel set in ancient times, and made a ton of money. Imagine a treacherous sea journey on the hunt of a giant white whale, with roller coaster CGI effects, and highly stylized "cinematography".<p>There's the mindset...

Captain Ahab and the crew will be animal murdering villains while the hero will be a clean cut ripped blond guy who is an early animal rights activist who is undercover on the ship as a member of an organization not unlike Greenpeace. He will eventually find a way to scuttle the ship thus justly killing the evil crew, and will be shipwrecked with the beautiful blond aristocratic headstrong girl who is also defy's her generation's mores on women's sexuality(i.e. she puts out...alot). The film will be shot w/ a HD video handheld camera to put us right in middle of the action. There will be a mandated minimum 60 cuts per minute and the whole thing will be filmed on a bluescreen. The script will be fully vetted and improved by every employee of the studio who will also all get co-producer credits. Focus groups will be on set at all times to resolve various issues ranging from dialogue revisions to makeup choices. 20 million dollars of the budget will be designated to provide organic costumes and foods, and to ensure the production is carbon neutral, carbon credits will also be purchased just to be sure.

...when I wonder why the fuck we're all here. Is THIS all we've got left. Some douche bag telling me it's not my "Grandfather's Moby Dick"....GOD DAMMIT! You know what, with all the pitch meetings and development deals I've sat in on...I KNOW THAT THAT MOTHERFUCKER ACTUALLY SAID THAT WHEN PITCHING! God Dammit!

dressed up as sailors. And to make the size of the whale more in line with the size of the monkeys, make it a beluga whale. It can be filmed in one of those kiddie turtle pools. And throw in aliens and maybe an irate jellyfish for good measure.<p>Yes, jellyfish get irate when you poke them with a stick.

The best "killer whale on a rampage" flick in my opinion. Hmmm, now that I think about it, it's the ONLY "killer whale on a rampage" flick. Unless you count the various incarnations of Moby Dick, which focused on the characters, not the whale.

yep... somehow I never envisioned this classic novel as a CGI action/adventure. Maybe they should have the whale talk with a Sean Connery voice, too. Besides, JAWS already took the crown for Best Moby Dick Reimagining Ever. Good luck with that.

Thats what I thought!!!! Why won't anyone make meg!!! It would make the authors dream come true. On the paperback edition that I bought over ten years ago there is a quote saying "its going to make one meg of a movie" And yet no one will make one meg of a movie. Thats going to be my new thing I'm going to log on to every talk back and say "its going to make one meg of movie" I'm actually not but if i had a bit more spare time and a bit less of a life i would. For sure.

I'm guessing half of Columbias production of coke base must go to Hollyweird.<p>The abuse of cocaine is the only answer I can come up with as to how anybody in Hollywood would think this is a good idea. What a fucking bunch of imbiciles.

Cast Fred Ward as the whale and Joel grey as Ahab, only call them Remo and Chun and have them work for a secret agency run by Willy Brimley. Also rename it 'Remo Williams 2: The Adventure Continues...' instead of this MOBY DICK nonsense and BAM! blockbuster.

They've already made the action/suspense version of this. Not only was Quint Ahab lite, but I think making him that way was a deliberate decision.
As for the "Wag the Dog" joke, Mamet claims that line came from a real producer trying to sell him on writing the script.

Dude don't be stupid. Jaws is overrated. The orignal Moby Dick book is a masterpiece. <p> In all seriousness......this probably won't be that bad. As long as they are faithful to the source material, I'm fine with a fucking CG whale. The Dark Knight had a ton of CG...that turned out alright. I don't like the director, but I've been reading some interviews with him about what he wants to do with this and his ideas actually sound interesting. Its gonna be sort of like Waterworld.

This means that the whale will be 1,000 feet long, have burning red eyes, giant tusks, will roar like Godzilla and breathe fire.
Meanwhiele, Ahab will be a muscular He-Man who is surrounded by beautiful (but dangerous, of course) women and an impressionable youngster. And of course he'll have a 50-foot glowing spear.
The best thing they can do is make it a comedy and cast Samuel L. Jackson as Ahab.
"I have had it with these motherfuckin whales in this motherfuckin ocean!"

We already have a great and 'definitive' Moby Dick movie with Gregory Peck. So no harm from a follow-up. The Psycho remake did not harm the original Psycho. And yes, I know it was a 'shot for shot' movie, but it still was not the original. Hollywood has been remaking movies since the twenties! And the book is a true masterpiece that can not be harmed in any way because a movie is made from it. This might be a kick ass whale killer movie!

It would be great to keep it in the same era it was originally intended but to modernize the overall style of it. What if they went the complete opposite way of realism and made it very visually stylistic and otherworldly (Speed Racer sort of thing) could be interesting. The key here is a good original score....somebody like Marco Beltrami would be great.

In a world of new ideas that are just plain are choking themselves, Timur Bekmambetov will be a breath of fresh air.<p>
Every Moby Dick I have seen so far hasn't really been anything to write home about.<p>
I even thought the book spent too much time muddled in metaphors and symolism.<p>
Melville would have wanted this.

People. stop freaking out and think. How many movies that you love came from a source material that was radically different than the finished product? <p> Like I said, the definitive movie already exists, so if they make another movie from a different angle, so what? As long as it is a good movie.

....on his other TB. There is not even a fucking script people!! The guy co-wrote Ransom....how fucking bad can it be? If I remember correctly Beaks has given glowing reviews to quite a few shit storms as well.

Timur Bekmambetov is a visual genius! He has been hailed all across these TB's for bringing his own style to movies. I say turn him loose! I want tos ee what he can do with this type opf flick. A real kick ass whale killer movie with a good backstory!

...what the fuck? hypocrites. That proves the pack like behavior....a few people give good reviews to TDK and this whole fucking site goes crazy before anyone has even seen it. And on the flip side, no one knows a fucking about this project and you're all bashing it....why? Because thats the cool thing to do?
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This site has become a 3rd grade popularity contest, it makes me sick.

Here we have the perfect template for a kick-ass action adventure.<p>
Granted the template is flawed, but that is something I think Timur can fix.<p>
Why not give it a chance and see before we all trash it to death.<p>
Look at how many people are ready to crown Avatar the best film in cinematic history without seeing it.<p>
Maybe this will be Timur's Aliens. You know the movie that truly shows what he can do, even with murky source material.

...who fucking cares? Its showing classical stories to a new generation of audience. Where is the crime in that? Most younger kids will not sit through shit like the original Moby Dick with Peck....they just won't. The film was good back then but it is dated and boring now. Today's audience needs a faster moving story. Why doesn't anyone understand that? Change isn't bad.

but I think that we have enough big action adventure films out there, that Timur will really need to distinguish himself. I can see this working if they actually do it from the POV of the whale! Seriously, can you imagine how groundbreaking that would be? We follow the whale's POV for the whole film, and that way everything that would typically bog down a film like this, exposition, slow human interest scenes can be cut out. Just start from the moment that Moby blasts from the depths, and create it so that we see his pain and turmoil and loneliness. Do that and I gurantee an Oscar for all.

None. Zilch. Zero. Nada.<p>
But we know that we are going to get the usual good effort from Bekmambetov and I know after he makes what will be the definitive Moby Dick film, more kids will be interested to see Melville's take on it.

Close minded fucks. I'm sick of it. When everyone on here is raving about how groundbreaking this shit is next year I'm gonna hold up a big middle finger to every one of you fucks. Jonah..I'm sure you were kidding about the Whale POV shit....but something like that could work intercut with the normal stuff. It worked well in Orca because we could relate to the beast and feel his pain. We need that here. We need to root for the whale.

...were on the Eagle Eye TB foaming at the mouth over its release this Friday. And those were the same cunts that go and and on about how great Disturbia is. So its okay to support ripping off Hitchcock-- but its a mortal sin to not rip off....but to do an admitted "Reimagining" of a dated and very flawed original film? Fuck that. Fuck that....at least these guys are on the record saying what the source material is....not like that dripping cunt D.J. "I didn't rip off Hitch" Caruso. FUCK THAT!!

Get John Hammond on a boat crewed by Vince Vaughn, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and a new Wayne Knight that was also engineered by In-Gen.<p>
I smell Oscar!<p>
They can chase it in circles around Isle FUBAR! Ha!

Wayne Knight could do his computer alert phrase over and over when they tried to get him to tell them the whale's weakness.<p>
"Uh-Uh-Uh! You didn't say the magic word!"<p>
That's right, just have him stand there wagging his finger back and forth.

a force of nature and the film will take on it's own feel. It will be seperate from the book. And you are telling me if a big budget period maritime film came out with a crazed man hunting a whale, none of you would see it?
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BRING.IT.ON.

Sorry but...<P>THIS. IS. MELVILLE!!!!!!!!!!<P>I'm surprised someone hasn't said that already.<P>TKD, comparing the remake of BSG to a "graphic novel-style version" of MOBY DICK is completely backwards. By that logic, the remake would have been based off the current series - not the OS.

It gives motivation to the whale. Whales are reputed to be the second smartest mammals on the planet. So why would they not have emotions as well? The baby whale may have been frightened or caught in a tuna trap. He may have been abused! These are motivations that would never have occurred in the 19th century!

Alright the whale swallows the Red October sub.<p>
Now the hunt is on!<p>
Also the whale is on a collision course for the coast of Alaska and Palin is standing on the beach stomping the base of a harpoon on the ground saying "You shall not pass!!!"<p>

You can take hallowed source material and 'update' it! The source will never change. The book remains inatct. The definitive movie version has been made. But updating the angle can be refreshing. Just about every major Shakespearean work has been updated and reimagined.

and screaming "Stop! Stop!" as Ahab found it cheaper to outsource a group of Asian whale hunters to overtake Moby and his Dick.<p>
She would still be pounding the beach as snot flew from her gasps of emotion, as the whalers canned up the final jar of whale oil.<p>
The end scene would be one of the guys handing her the Dick of Moby as she slowly starts to grin...

Moby Dick is just "KNOWN" as a masterpiece. How the fuck do any of these jerk offs here know that? Have they ever actually read the book? Well I have....its okay, but its not all that. Thats why i'm saying it can't hurt to spice it up a little bit. Flock of fucking sheep, if only Equinus were here he would fuck every one of you dry.

I know what you're saying and I do admit there are a few successful modernized versions of classic, hallowed stories. However, I'm a longtime fan of Melville. And what I've seen from Timur Bekmambetov does not sit well with me when I consider the nature of the source material. Like I said in my first post up top, the press release just reeks of a production inspired only by the application of modern FX.<P>In any case, if they do go through with this, I'll wish them luck. They're gonna need it.

There is a reason why he turned rogue - if indeed he really did. I mena come on. Ahab stalked the damn thing! Wouldnt that piss you off? This is a revenge flick of the highest order - but the hero does not have to be human!

I understand you may be a fan of Melville's work....but I think what you were trying to say is that you were able to project your own images of expectations of the classic legacy of Moby Dick over the actual text you read and make it an overall better reading experience. There is too much of a legacy to read something like Moby Dick with an honest point of view. Its like watching Citizen Kane for the first time right now...you are too heavily influenced by public opinion that it is a classic. That being said....I find the orignal Peck film pretty lackluster. Everyone is making fun of a CG whale, but in all seriousness its not like it can be any worse than the original whale effects.

they could really have an uplifting ending here and make it redemptive if Ahab actually reconciles with his anger, and doesn't kill Moby. Imagine him lowering the harpoon, and allowing all that wonder and mystery to roam free. It would be a brave, moving ending.

That is an honest response. It is more than most of the lemmings on here who can only parrot the moderators. NOthing worng with having misgivings, but realize that 'sacred' source material has been reworked for a very, very long time and sometimes the results are breathtaking. Take a look over on the twitch TB MNG.

I gotta cop to the fact that the original novel is a classic and it would be well written and important if it was written tomorrow and it was the first time we ever read it.
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However, I think we all know this is gonna be nothing like that whatsoever. This will be as much Moby Dick as Underworld was Romeo and Juliet.

I was unaware that Melville and Moby were related. I guess that explains his choice of a stage name.<p>I've read Moby Dick. and enjoyed it, but I like sailing stories, ships and such. I found those long passages in the book about these subjects intersting. So, am I a "cunt"?<p>never mind answering that. I get what is behind that statement of yours.

I read your post again. Are you a fan of Melville himself or of Moby Dick. Melville the man would make more sense, as he seemed like a fascinating fellow. <p> Were you aware of the homo-erotic themes all over the place in Moby Dick. I have read theories that Ishmael and Queequeg actually sleep together in the chapter titled, "Squeeze of the Hand."

Are you trying to imply that my response to reading MOBY DICK for the first time wasn't a genuine one because of public opinion?! I suppose my subsequent visits to the book matter little then too, eh?<P>For the record, I have seen the John Huston/Greg Peck version of MOBY DICK many times over the years. It used to scare me a little as a kid. But the movie brought me to the book and the book (IMHO) is the masterpiece it's lauded to be.

It needs to be an epic post-apocalyptic trilogy! Seriously, nobody can tell me they wouldnt want a grandiose reimagining of Moby Dick! At the end of the first movie you think they killed it, and in the second part it turns into a lost at sea adventure like the Ulysses story with different kinds of mythological aspects like mermaids and angry gods, with the cliffhanger revelation that Moby is still out there, then part 3 is the ultimate cat and mouse chase and final confrontation between Ahab and the "resurrected by a Poseidon Cult" Moby Dick!

But that is precisely what happens. Its not your fault. Everyone's views of art are skewed by the pack mentality of the world we live in. If something is hammered down you throat as a "CLASSIC" your entire life....it really isn't a fair view when you read it and agree it is indeed a classic. Did you find the homoerotic subtext in Moby Dick to be disturbing? It actually bothered me after I read about it more. <p>But seriously...you have decent taste in film. If this Moby reimagining was something on par with Jurassic Park...would you support it?

A) Fuck of and die!! B) We already had a very good re-imagining nearly 30 years ago. It was called Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan and finally C) Fuck of and die in case you weren't sure I meant it the first time!!

I'm a fan of Melville in general and he was definitely a fascinating fellow. When it comes to themes, there are a ton of theories as to what may or may not be contained in MOBY DICK as well as a few of his other novels. As for the homo-erotic stuff, I think it's mostly whimsical speculation but not without plausibility.

I don't know anything about Moby's music except for his one big song, "Here we are now" I think its called. I was just being a smartass.<p>I'm not so much botherd by this or any remake/reimaging or what ever the fuck you want to call it. What bothers me is the cowardness behind the whole concept.<p>What I mean is this. Instead of trying a new and diffrent idea by some writer, we get remakes/sequals/reimaging.<p> I get that easily recognized names bring in the cash with little risk but have some balls Hollywood, take the risk. Move off of the easy button.<p> To quote Paul'Muad Dib from Dune, "The safe path leads ever downward into stagnation." I might of paraphrased that one, its been awhile since I read the book.

I know it's an acknowledged classic, but I don't think it has any sort of towering legacy that will force any reader to bow down before it. I would actually be kind of surprised if that many people without AARP membership have ever read it. Of those who did read it, I'll bet many got bored with the constant chapter-long tangents to discuss whales or whaling.
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But this proposed film really does seem to be an excuse to turn a character-driven story into a special effects-filled action extravaganza. Timur is a director who is good with sleek, stylish action shots, but his style would be out of place in MOBY DICK. This story needs somebody doesn't need music or even words to portray menace and danger.
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Also, the original film didn't wow me that much. When I read the book years after seeing it, I could barely remember the plot, and I found myself most engaged in the chapter-long tangents about the culture of whaling, which are what I believe really distinguish the novel from other classic books. I don't know if you could weave that into the film or not. If you focus only on the main plot, you're cutting out most of what made the book special in the first place, which is the rich insight into the world of whalers. In that sense, any film version of MOBY DICK is kind of doomed.

Oh, I'm not upset, far from it. I'm just a little opposed to my honest take on something being accused of some sort of "herd" mentality. Frankly, that sounds like something Memories-Of-Murder would say.<P>I don't find the homoerotic subtext disturbing because it was never something that stood out to me during the times I read it. But you'll find more obvious sexual themes in TYPEE (considered risque for the time) and BILLY BUDD (repressed homosexuality).<P>As for a MOBY DICK on par with JURASSIC PARK, I would not endorse it outright. Sounds too much like an FX filled fun ride with a surface-value only plotline. Visceral thrills notwithstanding.

Now there's a book crying for a 're-imagining'. Nothing screams "CGI action-adventure" more than 'Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil.' Although the 'man vs. state of nature' parable is an important element to this popular tale, at heart it's about a biblical monster taking over the planet. Hobbes would have approved, and so would Carl Schmitt, who was also a big fan of the fish. And after this box-office smash, if we're lucky, somebody could do Jonah and the Whale, but from the whale's POV. Or what about Pinocchio, only this time focusing less on Pinocchio and more on the whale? Of course they could just drop Pinocchio altogether.

I have read it. It's too bloody good a book to cheapen with 'graphic novel sensabilties' but I guess that's what's needed now to drag MTV influenced, ADD riddled, playstation addicted fucktards into cinema's these days. If reimagining is needed for classics these days why is Mr. Darcy never a crack dealer in the latest version of Pride and Prejudice.

A reimagining does not require that you completely alter the personality of the character - hence making Mr. Darcy a 'crack dealer' would not work. It supposes that the basic established character can be put into different situations - such as the translation of Shakepeares The Tempest into outer space with Forbidden Planet. Romeo and Juliet have been reimagined multiple times - West Side story for instance. Do not dismiss what you do not know.

I understand that in adaptations changes in plot sometimes have to occur in order to tell the story, but where the hell do Hollywood writers think they can improve on the themes and the nature of characters written by the best authors and poets of literature? What Melville got it wrong? The abomination that was the recent Beowulf movie is another example. The Beowulf poet apparently didn't know what he was doing because obviously the hero, according to the movie, was supposed to be tragic rather than epic. Thank God Hollywood is around to fix the mistakes made by incompetent authors.

focusing on the action/revenge elements rather than the subtext and symbolism inherent in the novel would entirely defeat the purpose of using it as source material. it's much more of an existentialistic piece. anybody who doesn't agree should read it again and pay attention to the "boring" parts.

Are you opposed to a reimagining that works? Great authors can be reworked and 'updated'. It does not diminish from their greatness, as the source material still exists.<p> West Side story (Romeo and Juliet) <p> Forbidden Planet (The Tempest)<p> Shakespeare aint exactly chopped liver, and those two reworkings are excellent.

and the 'boring' parts are 400 pages long. the action revenge parts are like 40 pages long. the bulk of the actual story is less than ten percent of the novel. the rest is endless musing on whether or not a porpoise is a whale. It is by far the hardest to read 'classic' that i have every encountered coming across as a poorly composed treatise on whales and whaling full of outdated scientific infomation, with a short story tacked on the end. The vast majority of people who i know who have actually read it (and this is pretty much confined to those studying literature) believe that anyone claiming to like it is doing so in order to impress someone as to how well read they are. Maybe this is not the case for some of you i'll leave that option open, but i remain suspicious, I have studied the classics and have several friends who have degrees in literature and like i say we are all suspicious that anyone other than a pompous try hard could like it. if you liked it, more power to you. I'm beached bro!

I think especially if a movie is going to use the name of the source text, (its characters by name, etc.) then it should remain faithful to the spirit/theme/soul of that original text. It, however, does not have to be slavish retelling--TLOTR for instance does not slavishly stick to Tolkien in every way--but it always held onto its themes and characters. Re imaginings which borrow character types rather than specific characters and general plot elements/conflicts I do not think need to be that faithful. Interestingly the examples you cite, West Side Story and Forbidden Planet were fairly faithful to the original source in spirit and theme despite the fact that they were not adaptations. They are better adaptations in my opinion than what this movie aims for, which will have the outer appearance of the the novel Moby Dick but none of its spirit or soul.

'poorly composed treatise on whales and whaling full of outdated scientific infomation' and replace it with 'well composed treatise on whales and whaling full of outdated scientific infomation' I admit he is quite methodical. and i don't mean any offence to anyone, i have just in my time encountered many people who claim to have read it but when you ask them questions they fall apart. It one of those books people like to prominently display in their book case in order to show off how smart they are.

"I'm tired of these motherfuckin whales in this motherfuckin boat!" <p>
"Quint is Ahab-lite"? Fuck you and the whale you rode in on. Quint was in it for the $$$ and the case of apricot brandy...the "obsession" only kicked in after he'd been bested by the beast. Only THEN was Quint getting his revenge for all those poor souls who died after the Indianapolis sunk. <p>
Two completely different characters...two completely different kinds of obsession. Both equally kick ass. Quint was never lookin for a "white shark"...it found him.

IT WERENT NO WHITE WHALE THAT ANGER"D YA IT WAS ME FLACID PEG LEG. NOT THE ONE OF WOOD MIND YA.<P>
Don't like me no Passive Ahab. Love the Gregory Peck version. Love the TV one with Capt Picard as Ahab too. Very visual that one was. This one unless Ahab is an asshole with vengence in toe. I don't care. I'll tell you what movie Uni should make..

"I'm tired of this mutha-fucking whale, fucking up my boats!"<br><br>"I'm the captain, you have to do what I fucking say!"<br><br>"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! You fucking semen looking, white piece of shit fish!"

And Harry had Bob A. Burns and Gunnar Hansen come to his Birthday party, but actually he said it was on Halloween before in a previous post related to TCM, so I always took that tale with a grain of salt. I did however call Bob Burn's at home once shortly before he passed away. Talked to him for 45 minutes or so, cool guy. So sad he's gone. My best friend is blood kin to Jesse James. Looks exactly like him too. So in a way Harry is related to my best friend since he claims to be kin. Got any kin with the last name Grubbs Mr. Knowles. Wonder if we will ever meet at a family BBQ or something.

Really? Even though it's considered a classic, it seems like a real niche book to me. The fact that most people don't ever acknowledge that most of it isn't even about Moby Dick, Ahab, or Ismael tells me that most people haven't even actually read it in the first place. In fact I don't recall ever meeting more than 3-4 people who I was sure actually read the novel rather than just saw the film. I think that in a lot of ways, MOBY DICK is kind of a forgotten book, and I don't think anybody's snob credentials are enhanced by a reference most people don't even know. Not like I poll everyone on this, but that's my sense of it.
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FYI, I tend to think pretty much ANYBODY who keeps a shelf full of books they've already read is showing off, especially if they're paperbacks. Give that shit to friends.

Take THE classic American novel about obsession, race, democracy, and all the other complex issues of 19th century America and make it into a Jaws knockoff. I assume by "comic book sensibilities" they mean that the film will be shot entirely with green screen so that it feels as if we're watching a poorly acted play instead of an actual movie.

of its form - in other words it's very much about the written word. It's a BOOK. It is not at all a blueprint for a movie; far from it. So attempting a "loyal" adaptation is silly anyway. The story such as it is and the plot are only part of the sprawling - let's face it - near mess the novel is. <p>So however they want to fuck around with it is fine with me. There's no "right" way to film the thing, so doing it wrong is no big deal.

Moby Dick is not an Action Adventure film. It's the tragic story of a man who's single-minded goal of revenge consumes him and damns himself and all those around him. Also, Jaws isn't about a shark, it's about a monster.

I just heard a lecture a few nights ago about how unique this country was in its complete hatred and disregard for history. How radio propaganda in the Muslim world can make vague reference - a name, a date - to a historical event maybe a thousand years old and everyone - including the large illiterate population - would understand it. Try that here, with these fucks.

Hollywood has been doing this for decades. I'd say James Whales' "Frankenstein" bears little resemblance to Mary Shelley's novel. Both film versions of "War of the Worlds" are equally worlds apart from the original H.G. Wells novel. Anyone recall the Roger Corman "adaptations" of Edgar Allan Poe tales in the 1960's? Let's not even talk about Walt Disney. And going back to a film like the Universal "Frankenstein", it's not like that movie suddenly rewrote the novel. There have been many different film versions since, all re-imaginings of Shelley's work, but you still have to read the full unabridged novel in college. Point is, I don't think 19th century American Literature will crumble as a result of this movie. Heck, if you read an abridged copy of "Moby Dick", it kind of reads like an action-adventure story.

I don't think "flipping through" the book is sufficient to criticize it, or to criticize people who think it's great. You're free to say what you like, of course, but it's pretty ridiculous unless you've actually read the thing.

"all those chapters about knots and blubber that everyone skips over." Those chapters are actually highly inaccurate haha. For instance Melville refers repeatedly to the whale as a fish, even though by the time the book was written everybody knew that whales were mammals. So there's a funny anecdote.

aren't that inaccurate. Most of it is about the whaling "industry" and the history of whaling. It's not as if he's unfamiliar with the anatomy of a whale for chrissakes. The bit about whether it's a fish or not is obviously wrong, but so what. That was a scientific golden age and things were still being classified and categorized. It's an old fucking book.

the whale as fish thing is presented as an argument, making it obvious that during the writing there was still debate as to the categorization, or at least that it was a new one, and one Melville disagreed with. Etc

Somebody earlier said that Wrath of Khan was an adaptation of Moby Dick. I thought I should correct the record, NOT SO! NOT SO! NOT SO! If anything it's closer to Paradise Lost, another revenge classic, y'know, about Satan. But even that's pushing it. The fact that Khan quotes Lucifer from it saying "from Hell's heart I stab at thee" to Kirk is more a reference to the original series episode in which Khan appears. At the end of the episode (Space Seed) when Kirk offers Khan the alternative of being brought before a federation court martial or being marooned with his crew on Ceti Alpha V Khan asks him if he's read Milton. Kirk says he understands and quote from it "I'd rather be a King in Hell than a slave in Heaven." Consider the record corrected. Now, a movie adaptation of Paradise Lost....

i have read it, i was just refeshing my memory, not wanting to get specific details wrong eg: the ratio of story to info. I often do this, which is why i buy some books and borrow the ones that i am likely to want to re read or reference. and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the start and the end, the parts that were about obbsession, i just felt that the detail that he goes into over the characteristis of whales, what makes a whale a whale, which animals qualify as whales, i just felt that was overly long (it is about four hundred out the the 440 pages of the book) Also I certainly wouldn't criticize someone for liking it, i wasn't clear enough on that. What i would criticize is anyone who a)pretends to have read a book that they haven't read in order to look smart or b)pretends to like a book they didn't like in order to look smart.<p>on several occasions i and some of the other recent posters have caught people on this site doing just that - and with movies too. I find it absurd. And i feel that this is the number one book for that. One person above pointed out how many people bang on about it being only a story about obsession and that these people have obviously not read it. that is what i was getting at. Anyone who read this book that i didn't really get into (i thought i was going to like it but didn't) and liked it, well good on them i certainly wasn't criticizing people who are genuinely like that.<p>i actually read a survey recently (done anonymously) and it is number one on the list of books that book reviewers claim to like but secretly don't. this rings true to my experience. further more i am scratching my head because a number of people have posted comments show they have both read it an liked it. furthermore this is true of some posters whose opinion i trust. so i need to reevaluate. still, i dress as a yobo and talk like a yobo and have had several people talk down to me about this book assuming i would be too stupid to read it, only for it to turn out that they haven't read it, which is where i am coming from, that this is book that pompus people love to brag about reading. Not that i am saying anyone here is specifically like that.

I'm not sure that's so true of Americans. I may argue that we simply have a shorter history to work with. Whereas Middle Eastern culture has existed for thousands of years, in someplaces relatively unchanged since the the first recording of the Qu'Ran, the first British colony wasn't even established until about 1607 here. Therefore the dates and events of significance are fewer because it's a smaller window. You'd be hard pressed to find a kid who doesn't know 1776, Abraham Lincoln, World War II, or the Industrial Revolution. Just a thought.

I thought I might have misunderstood. It would have been weird to have a book like that just sitting around unread, I guess. But I forged ahead, like a madman.<p>I only read the book for the first time in the last year and thought it was great. It bogs down at times in the middle but it's well worth it overall.

The first hour will be Ishmael and Ahab on dry land, recruiting scalawags and murderous dogs for their journey, with fist fights and tomfoolery. Ishmael will have a sweetheart, or meet one, that somehow tags along for the journey.
They will not see Moby Dick until the first hour and a half. While we see him cause damage, the Pequod's crew will encounter dangerous seas, giant squids, sharks, and other bizzare sea creatures before finally getting to the big Dick, who will be a sympathetic villain, as we find out the only reason he causes damage is because he's like the Hulk....others have always antagonized him and hunted him for sport.

I think it's safe to say that Star Trik II took influence from both Paradise Lost and Moby Dick. How the paradise that Kirk and crew left Khan and his followers on turned into a barren desert hell is a bit like Milton's classic, and Kirk is definitely Khan's white whale.

I got into that kind of dense book for a while, and so I was ready for it. Also I'd heard about the slow parts and girded myself for them; they weren't bad at all, maybe cause I mentally prepared myself, but I gotta say I would agree with anyone who puts it in the loftiest of literary categories. <p>As I said earlier, at the very least, as Alan Moore (perhaps dubiously) claims of Watchmen, it is a piece of work that really exists within and takes full advantage of the medium for which it was created. Naturally, that doesn't help the reader to enjoy it necessarily, and sometimes it's not even that enjoyable but I loved its "voice" and found it to be pretty exhilarating in all its near-chaotic ambition and energy.

the interesting thing about his arguments is that he knew his shit for the time. the info was quite up to date scientifically when the book was written. He actually for a while was a whaler. The book is actually supposed to be in part the sequal to a real life event. A whaling ship called the essex was rammed by a whale and sank. Only two life boats made it off. One went missing, never to be found the other was dramatically picked up later. The people in this boat had resorted to canabalism and when found would not let go of the bones of a guy they had eaten as they were sucking the marrow out of them. One of these guys wrote his story and melvele bumped into one of his relatives who had a copy and read it, inspiring moby dick. I actually find this back story more interesting than the novel it self.

... to track down and eliminate a young Ahab before he grows up and leads an expedition to kill his grandather, who is in fact the leader of the Whale Resistance in the year 2025, who fight to take back their ocean from Seanet. It's like TERMINATOR meets HOME ALONE 3.

THE WHITE BUFFALO. Charles Bronson plays a syphilitic Wild Bill Hickock who returns to the West to hunt down the Giant White Buffalo that haunts his dreams. Kind of a strange movie. But in a good way, if you ask me.

Moby dick is a classic because of itss ymbolism. right off the bat, they are getting rid of all the subtlety in order to make an eyecandy special effects movie. meh.
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Bonus points for kids who rent this version five years from now and write a book report on it.

....it's about a monster". <p>
I respectfully spit on your shoe, sir. <p>
Jaws isn't about a shark...it's about the PEOPLE around the shark. THAT'S why Jaws was so damn good. <p>
The makers of this new Moby Dick will forget this lesson, like Renny Harlin before them. <p>
What we will get is "Deep Blue Dick"...as seen thru the filter of Frank Miller and the look of "300". <p>
These "re-imagined" remake movies are inspired by idiots who are only motivated by how "realistic" the updated "monster" will look with the most recent CGI breakthroughs and render farms at the their disposal. What they forget is...the "monster" is just eye candy...no one can really identify with it. What audiences identify with is the CHARACTERS that inhabit the monster's world. <p>
I applaud Peter Jackson for understanding this simple fact...by at least attempting to make the people running away from...and those trying to capture Kong...interesting and identifiable characters...I felt he STILL went a lil overboard with the WETA tools in his arsenal (the bug/ravine scene, Peter? Really?)...but he and his talented artists did a wonderful job of making Kong a character that most identified with. <p>
But that was easy...Kong had very 'human' features...easily identifiable 'moods' and facial expressions. <p>
With Moby...all you have is that huge eyeball...that's it. An eyeball. Well...The best CGI eyeball in the world won't make us love this movie...unless they concentrate on the HUMAN characters first and foremost. <p>
Because Bruce was a practical effect movie monster...he failed to work properly 90% of the time while filming "Jaws". Spielberg should thank the film Gods every night for that problem. It made him make a better movie...by forcing him to shoot AROUND the shark....and focus on the people. <p>
BTW...I think Khan may have just happen to have READ Moby Dick...and was merely "quoting" Meville...Saying ST:TWOK = Moby Dick is a huge leap, IMO.

So all this time Moby Dick was really about a rampaging whale and a badass do-gooder set on revenge that goes on an adventure to take the whale out... I guess it will be staring Michael Chiklis as Ahab. Any smart actor will not touch this shit with a 1000 ft pole.

...to skullfuck the hell out of the Brothers K. See how they like that shit! I can see it now, the whole Great Inquisitor sequence can end with Jesus shooting the shit out of those evil priests! FUCK YEAH!

My grandfathers Moby Dick IS Moby Dick. I dont want to see something about whalers with a stupid love subplot and a crazy captain as they hunt a white whale that could or could not be an alien. More like "based on Moby Dick". I bet Michael Bay will direct.

Featured a giant white whale and a one legged sea Captain named Ahab but otherwise has little resemblance to the novel. John Barrymore stars as the lovable sea scamp Ahab Ceely who not only surveys the final conformation with Moby Dick but marries the girl. CHE (Classic Hollywood Ending).

So lots of night shots, probably a whale music soudtrack. The girl from whale rider will also be involved somehow. Maybe she delivers a rainbow to Ahab. Who now, get this, is a Arab!
plus an environmental message.

Why does this come to mind?<br><br><br>
Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?<br><br>Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!<br><br>Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?<br><br>Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want!<br><br>Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?<br><br>Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah, good.

Cause is his version the whale grew legs and arms and stomped over New York, London and Tokyo, killing millions and decimating major landmarks with fiery plankton breath. Ahab was a scientist who built a giant Robot Squid to fight the mutant bastard Whale - the final confrontation took place in the Bermuda Triangle and there were aliens and shit involved.<BR><BR>He was a visionary my grandpa, mad as a bag of stoats and penniless after being sued by the estate of Howard Melville and the many other writers that he had 'versions' of - but a kind and good man!

Not so much a movie about a white whale as one that turns into a white elephant. This will be a $100 million plus festival of meh. There are some stories that don't benefit from retelling differently, especially when the original is a classic.

I'm not related to H. Melville, I was just making fun of the dude in the article for saying "this is not your grandfather's Moby Dick." I almost feel bad for that guy because you can't read that article without wanting to punch him in the face. I am an individual of non–violence but I volunteer to punch this dude as portrayed in the article in the face. Hopefully every word was misquoted.<p>
For the record I see nothing wrong with re-interpreting a many-times-interpreted classic tale like this, that's not offensive and this movie could even end up being entertaining. But the way the guy describes it (for example using the meaningless "graphic novel sensibilities" term) just seems like such an exaggerated parody of the kind of idiocy that we all imagine is behind the shittiest and most moronic movies. The guy sounds more like a Ben Stiller skit than a human being. Good stuff.<p>
Now if we could just work some x-games in there, didn't the youths like x-games a while back? I think I heard something about that, let's throw em in. This is not your grandfather's games this is something different, so get ready. Moby Dick/wakeboarding 2010.

Is a particularly pathetic way of Timur saying that he is going to tear up a thoughtful classic. Claiming that they 'revere' the original book, just as they are about to ignore everything in it apart from 'man vs. whale' adds insult to injury. In about, what?, 15 years' time, some punk will maybe think about re-imagining Jaws, capitalising on the breakthroughs in visual effects. And probably gutting it of everything else.

It's said many times over: the reason people like Michael Bay etc keep working is because people keep paying to see their films. The films that these guys make is (I'm paraphrasing David Mamet here) closer to the circus than to drama. You don't go to watch a story, to feel emotion, to see a drama. You go to applaud visual effects, or kick-ass stunts. Now, there is plenty of skill involved in putting together a circus, and Bay etc do indeed have skill. But they are not telling stories, and don't let anyone ever tell you that they are.

"Philibrick, we need a new concept. What can we reimagine now?" <P>"Well sir, what about Moby Dick" <P>"What, that old shit"<P>"Well sir, it's about Whales" <P>"WHALES, PHILIBRICK, WHADDAYAMEAN WHALES? THAT SHITHOLE NEAR ENGLAND"

Coming to cinemas near you, the visionary director of Transformers brings you "DICK". Based on the Herman Melville masterpiece, this eagerly anticipated blockbuster tells the story of one man's crusade against forces beyond his control. Marvel at the groundbreaking special effects and trailblazing slow motion. Laugh at the humour of one giant whale pissing on Ahab, cry when Ahab must choose between the woman he loves and the whale he needs. Starring Martin Lawrence (Black Knight) as Ahab and Jessica Biel as nelly, the barmaid that captures Ahab's heart. Soundtrack by Aerosmith.

Here's how: take a good look at BEOWULF. They made MASSIVE changes to the story. But it was done with a genuine reverence for the text, and one that teased out meanings rather than just giving excuses for CGI. I'm not saying that you have to stick to the originals verbatim. But if you do meddle, it better be for a reason. So there.

Why not just make a movie that explores similar themes, but call it something else? MOBY DICK is one of my favorite novels, a classic, one that is highly influential on modernism and post-modernism, and now we get this? R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D.

It's called Leprechaun 4. <P>Seriously, I'm not joking. It's got soldiers and a german in it. And everything. <P>Although the Leprechaun may represent a white whale representing the East Side of Kathmandu though. I'm not sure. <P>Anyway this is still a shit idea and I don't like the book.

After all, they're different mediums that must tell a story in different ways. However, I prefer it if the filmmakers truly understand the classic and uncover certain themes in their version. In the best adaptations there's a conversation going on between the book and the film. Take a look at Blade Runner, which seems to contradict the book, but it's interesting because you could tell the filmmakers at least understood the book enough to talk back to it. Likewise, Kenneth Brannaugh knows Shakespeare well enough that he can uncover particular meanings or play with certain themes. <p>
However, this film sounds like shit. Ahab as a swashbuckling character? More action? Why even bother if you don't understand or even like the original? It's not like the title Moby Dick is going to really excite the preteen audience. "Fuck yeah! Moby Dick by that Melville dude! I loved it when my teacher assigned that book. I only read the first chapter but I really want to know how it ends. Fo shizzle Mo Dizzle!"

We need a line down the isle – just like in “Airplane”. I’m next behind Vern to smack this guy around. That’ll learn ‘em that Grad Dad’s story (the one based on a great, long established, American novel) was never broken in the first place.

I saw wanted. I enjoyed it very much. It was what it was, a fun popcorn flick with a lot of neat effects. Nothing cerebral about it. I an enjoy that, and still hate the idea of what they're trying to do with The Dick.

It's been done. Although in that case it was cool because it was a grown up Tom. In the deleted scenes Huck was also an agent, merely referenced as KIA. There was a made for TV movies years ago with Tom and Huck returning to Hannibal, MO as adults. I think one was an attorney.

how'd you come up with that screen name. Any plans to see Blindess. Looks like a cool flick. And yes, it can be Transformers 2 bad if they are changing the inherent traits of the main characters. Modernized settings, etc, can work, but only if you keep the characters true to their nature, and this does not seem to be the case with this movie.

The name was just a sort of inside joke my friends and I came up with after watching Predator 2. We were joking it would be funny if Danny's dick was bleeding and thats how the Predator was tracking him....by following the trail of dick blood. Don't ask me why we thought that was funny at the time......awww....I guess it still is. Anyway-- Blindness.....yeah that shit looked pretty good. Didn't they play a trailer like over a year ago? Its coming on DVD soon right?

Nope, maybe you're blind because they've had the trailer ad on this site. The movie opens 10/3. Normally I'm broke, but as I have two movie passes I'm going to check it out. As for my name, I thought I'd take one of the coolest things in existence, and combine it with one of the dumbest things in existence. Can't wait to see 2012 either. I like the Back to the Future joke.

I leave for 2 minutes and all god damned hell breaks loose? When we were kids we'd play opposite day...is this 'opposite decade'? or some shit? Besides, Mody isn't even a whale...it's a cyborg-mutagenic-xenos so why not have a reimagining where Moby eats a kindergarten floatilla and Ahab is actually Mr. Vandehab the beloved Art & Music teacher who witnesses the tragedy and goes looking for Quinn from Jaws to help. He finds out Quinn is dead so instead rises to the occasion and hires a shrimp boat to hunt down the mutant whale cause by humanity's evil need to create super soldiers for the war in Istanbul.

Not one cinematic adaptation of "Moby Dick" has come close to capturing the tone or detail of the book. I'm not saying this one will, but I am saying that the definitive "Moby Dick" has yet to be made.

MASTER AND COMMANDER has the same kind of vibe and low-key intensity you'd need in a good film version of MOBY DICK, and Weir was outstanding at showing the gritty details of sea living. I could see him making a definitive adaptation of MOBY DICK if he was ever given free reign and a good budget.

AICN.com account holders should be able to click on each other's names...and leave email for one another. Like I have noticed over the last two weeks, I haven't seen Mavra Chang on any postings, or Organ Donor for that matter, etc. It's like everybody is melting away and there is no way to contact anybody on this site other than to run into them when a popular post is up, if that??? And right now, all the available movie news coming from the studios is stale, and will probably be that way until deep into November.

...when we were sternly admonished for AICN pack mentality for thinking this is a bad idea. Yeah, we need to keep an open mind about "not our grandfather's Moby Dick," but Shia? HE MUST BE STOPPED!!! Sorry, but not even the sheer cinematic brilliance of, uh, "Ransom" can stop me from throwing this whole "2Moby2Dick" clusterfuck under the bus. I would actually much prefer to see Dustin Hoffman's character's idea, especially in 3-D, shot entirely in whale sounds with subtitles, that would be sweet.

I believe there's a difference.
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I think you CAN make a film that follows the "plot" part of MOBY DICK and captures the spirit of the book. It shouldn't be an action film, though - there should be a lot of downtime showing the regular struggles of life on a whaling ship, with the occasional outburst of panicked action.
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DO NOT think you could ever film the book as it was written, because you'd have to pause for lectures, flashbacks, etc. That's just not a film most people would sit through.
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Then again, maybe ANIMAL PLANET or DISCOVERY CHANNEL could do it or something, that's kind of how cable channels handle their educational docu-dramas.
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That said, I would rather watch the former - so long as it was brooding and willing to spend time showing the lives of whalers while letting the narrative unfold slowly.
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In a way, I think this could be adapted kind of like LOTR - I liked the original books, but there was plenty of exposition that they were able to cut while keeping relatively close to the spirit of the work. I consider that to be a "definitive adaptation" of a book, meaning I think it captures the spirit of the work. You can make an adaptation that is not complete but still definitive.

...this could be one hell of a great bad movie. If there's a slow-mo shot in the trailer of a berserk Ahab with a harpoon leaping off the bow of his ship toward the whale as it charges towards him... well I'm still not going to pay anyone to see it, but I'd watch when it's on cable and I'm really high, and I'd probably love it. There needs to be more elaborate, big budget, unintentionally ironic comedies.

The best ever reimagining of a classic work is the transformation of Heart of Darkness into Apocalypse Now. See, they took Heart of Darkness and put it in Vietnam instead of Africa. That's a good idea.

Oh I agree completely. All I meant with that sentence was that Bruce isn't a shark at all. Sharks don't eat a ton of people over and over again and wreck ships and think critically. Bruce is a monster. And Khan was the genetically enhanced military dictator of the Middle East and most of Asia, so I'm assuming he read a bit.

How much money is 700 billion? Let me put it into perspective. If you were to divide that pie amongst all the men and women in the United States of America above the age of 18 they would each receive $300,000 dollars each, from the lowliest bus boy in Manhattan to the highest paid celebrity in Hollywood. Do you think that might stimulate the economy?